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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23571550">Alois Investigates</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MACRA/pseuds/MACRA'>MACRA</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route, Humor, Post-Time Skip</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:28:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,070</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23571550</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MACRA/pseuds/MACRA</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alois wants to make sure everyone in the Monastery is safe. Marianne just wants a quiet morning.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>My Unit | Byleth/Leonie Pinelli</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Alois Investigates</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Marianne!”</p><p>Marianne dropped her trowel and clutched at her heart. “Oh, Goddess.” She turned to see Alois Rangeld standing in the doorway to the greenhouse. The cross words she had formulated remained unspoken. “Indoor voice, Alois,” she admonished him.</p><p>“You’ve got to come quickly,” he said in a more moderate but still agitated tone.</p><p>“What is it? What’s wrong?” She started toward him, caught by his urgency.</p><p>“Leonie isn’t in the training center!”</p><p>She stopped. “I’m not following you.”</p><p>“You’ve got to! It’s urgent.”</p><p>Marianne closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “That wasn’t a refusal, Alois. I mean I don’t understand why Leonie not being somewhere is a matter of urgency.”</p><p>“She never misses her morning exercises.”</p><p>Marianne furrowed her brow. “Well, she might…”</p><p>“Never!”</p><p>She sighed. “What exactly do you want me to do?”</p><p>“Come with me to her room. She might be ill.”</p><p>“She also might just be sleeping later than normal. It’s hardly late in the day. If we disturb her she might be… upset.”</p><p>“Please?” He looked at her pleadingly. His entire mustache seemed to quiver.</p><p>Marianne didn’t sigh again, but it took effort. At least Leonie’s room wasn’t far from the greenhouse. “Oh, all right. If it will ease your mind.”</p><p>Somehow in agreeing to accompany Alois, Marianne had become the one actually tasked with knocking on Leonie’s door. The burly knight hung back, wringing his hands. Marianne rapped tentatively on the door and said, “Leonie? Are you in?” There was no answer.</p><p>She looked at Alois. He made encouraging gestures and said, “Louder.”</p><p><em>How do I get into these things?</em> She knocked more firmly and called, “Leonie? I’m here with Alois. He’s worried about you. Are you there?” Silence was her only response. “I really don’t think she’s in,” she told Alois.</p><p>“Open it,” he said. “She might be unable to answer.”</p><p>“No!”</p><p>Alois grunted and stepped up to the door. He grasped the knob with one hand and clapped the other over his eyes. He then pushed the door open. “Is she there?” he asked.</p><p>“No, thank the Goddess.”</p><p>Alois uncovered his eyes cautiously and peered into the empty room. “Huh.”</p><p>“You see? She’s up and about somewhere. She just for once didn’t start the day with her usual workout. Now if you’ll excuse me…” Ignoring her, Alois strode into the room and stood in the middle of it with his hands on his hips. Marianne looked around guiltily. Fortunately, there was no one about in the dormitory area. “You should really come out of there.”</p><p>“The bed hasn’t been slept in,” Alois declared.</p><p>Marianne stared at the bed. It was tidily made up, which is exactly what Marianne would have expected from Leonie. “How on earth can you tell?”</p><p>Alois ignored this. “When did you see her last?” he asked. “It may be important.”</p><p>Marianne shrugged. “She was in the commons room last night with… a number of people.”</p><p>Fortunately Alois didn’t seem to notice her momentary hesitation. There had indeed been plenty of other people in the commons room, but Leonie had been there <em>with</em> Byleth.</p><p>In the past few weeks the two had clearly started courting. Thus far, they had been taking things slowly. Slow enough that <em>certain people</em> with dirty minds had been speculating on when they would go further. Blessedly, none of those people had been in the commons room, or they would have noticed that the pair were definitely… sparking. They had sat off to one side, heads leaned close together, talking in hushed tones. Leonie - Leonie! - had actually giggled at one point. It had been about that time that Marianne had retired to her room with an improving book, so she didn’t know for a fact what had transpired next. But there was an obvious guess, and annoyingly it meant that Alois was probably right that Leonie’s bed hadn’t been slept in.</p><p>She hadn’t really been paying attention to what Alois was saying to her as she had reflected, but now the words “search party” penetrated her consciousness.</p><p>“What?” she squeaked, hoping she had misheard.</p><p>“We’ve got to rouse the monastery,” he said. “Scour the countryside. If she’s been abducted, we need to pick up the trail.”</p><p>“Who would have abducted her?”</p><p>“The enemy,” Alois said, nodding sagely.</p><p>“Why would they bother? No offence to Leonie. I don’t think they’d bother to abduct me either, or most people in the monastery for that matter. Claude or Byleth, yes. Possibly Seteth. The rest of us, no. If they could infiltrate Garreg Mach that easily, I think they’d have something more on their minds than kidnapping.”</p><p>“You’re right. It’s far more likely that she surprised an intruder, in which case who knows what could have happened to her.”</p><p>“No, that’s not what I meant at…”</p><p>“I’ll sound the alarm.”</p><p>“Wait!” Miraculously he did. Marianne’s mind raced. Telling him the truth of her suspicions was the easiest solution. But this was Alois. He would tell <em>everybody</em>. If she could stop him doing something foolish and spare Byleth and Leonie from the rumor mill, at least for a little while, it had to be worth the effort. “The last thing we want is a panic. We should establish the facts. You and I will make a quick tour of the monastery. We’ll make inquiries, subtle inquiries, as to whether anyone has seen Leonie. If they have, there’s nothing to worry about. If they haven’t, our efforts will make it easy to convince the others.”</p><p>“But the time!” he wailed.</p><p>“Extra care now could prevent serious mistakes later,” she said with perfect sincerity.</p><p>“I suppose.”</p><p>“We’ll start at the cathedral,” she said and started briskly in that direction.</p><p>Alois trotted to keep up with her. “Why the cathedral?”</p><p><em>Because Leonie almost never goes there, and it will buy her the most time to be seen somewhere else. </em>“There’s only one way in or out, so we can be sure we don’t accidentally miss her.”</p><p>“Oh. Yes, that makes sense.”</p><p>Marianne smiled in satisfaction. This could work. Leonie and Byleth were both early risers. They might linger a little under the circumstances, but soon they’d be up and about. Leonie would be seen by plenty of witnesses, Alois would calm down, and everyone else would be none the wiser. And Marianne might even have time to return to her gardening. And…</p><p>And Alois was no longer by her side. She looked around in dismay. Cutting through the dormitory area had been a tactical mistake, because the burly knight was marching straight for Byleth’s door.</p><p>“You’re right about not raising a panic,” he said over his shoulder, “but we should at least put Byleth in the picture.”</p><p>“NO!” Marianne cried, but too late. Alois was already knocking loudly.</p><p>“It’s me, Alois!” He pounded some more. “Are you in?”</p><p><em>Please answer, before he decides to break the door down,</em> Marianne thought.</p><p>“What do you want?” Byleth finally said from behind the door. A hint of annoyance made its way into his usual almost flat intonation.</p><p>“We need to talk,” Alois said. He lowered his voice to what passed for confidential tones for him. “Leonie’s missing.”</p><p>Marianne buried her face in her hands. She could just imagine the stunned looks being exchanged behind the door.</p><p>“Just a moment,” Byleth said wearily.</p><p>Under the circumstances, the wait was actually quite short, although Alois visibly fretted at any delay. Before his patience could boil over, the door opened to reveal Leonie. Her hair was down, and she was clearly wearing one of Byleth’s tunics instead of her own. Byleth stood at her shoulder, shirtless. “What’s this about me being missing?”</p><p>“Leonie, you’re here! Look, Marianne,” he said pointing, “She’s here.”</p><p>“So she is,” Marianne sighed.</p><p>“Ta-da!” Leonie said with a little flourish.</p><p>Alois addressed Marianne with fatherly patience. “See what a good idea it was to stop here first? If we’d proceeded with the search, we’d have missed her and not found her for hours.”</p><p>“Just imagine,” Marianne said faintly.</p><p>Over Alois’s shoulder, Leonie mouthed something that looked like “Thank you for trying.” She composed herself quickly as he turned his attention back in her direction.</p><p>“Well, this is certainly a relief,” Alois said.</p><p>“Why exactly,” Byleth put in, “did you think that Leonie might be missing?”</p><p>“Well she wasn’t in the training center doing her normal morning workout,” Alois began.</p><p>“I got some extra exercise last night,” Leonie said, deadpan. “I figured I could afford to break training this once.”</p><p>Marianne choked, and Alois turned to look at her in concern. “Are you all right? Your face has turned red.”</p><p>She stared at him. “A bug flew in my mouth,” she lied.</p><p>“Oooh,” he said sympathetically. He turned back to the couple. “Well, I’m certainly glad to find you. Marianne said there was probably a logical explanation.”</p><p>“Always listen to Marianne,” Byleth said. Leonie nodded fervently.</p><p>“So what brings you here this morning?” Alois asked conversationally.</p><p>Leonie and Byleth exchanged a look. “Strategy session,” Leonie said.</p><p>“Oh, but shouldn’t Claude be here?” the knight asked. “And Seteth. And possibly…”</p><p><em>Any moment now, he’ll offer to go fetch people</em>. “It’s a new planning method,” Marianne blurted. Of course, <em>everyone</em> turned to stare at her. “You know how the same people always talk in the war council?” she continued, twisting her fingers together. “Well, instead you break up the group into pairs, they talk it over, and then everyone comes back together and shares the ideas they came up with. Maybe you get new perspectives.” She trailed off.</p><p>“That’s a really good idea!” Alois said, turning to Byleth.</p><p>“I can’t take credit for it. It’s actually Marianne who came up with it.” Which wasn’t technically a lie. “And you’re right. It’s an excellent idea.”</p><p>“It is?” Marianne mouthed. Leonie nodded back at her.</p><p>“Well, I should let you get back to it,” Alois said. Marianne let out a quiet breath in relief. However, the knight paused before walking away. “I’m sorry to pry,” he said to Leonie, “but what on earth happened to your tunic?”</p><p>“It got stretched in the wash,” she said without missing a beat. Alois nodded, and Marianne added “laundry” to her growing mental list of things he didn’t understand.</p><p>“What about you?” he said to Byleth.</p><p>“Spilled tea on myself,” was the laconic answer.</p><p>Alois nodded again but a bit more hesitantly. “Could I have a private word with Byleth for a moment?” he said to Leonie.</p><p>She didn’t look thrilled, but she shrugged and stepped over to stand next to Marianne, giving her a wry look.</p><p>Alois drew Byleth into the room. His “confidential whisper” easily reached the two women’s ears. “You should really clean this place up before a lady comes to visit,” he said sternly. “I mean, you didn’t even make you bed.”</p><p>Marianne drew a weary hand over her eyes. In an actual whisper Leonie said to her, “Is he messing with us?”</p><p>“I have a horrible feeling he’s being utterly serious.”</p><p>Alois had apparently finished dispensing housekeeping advice, and Byleth was escorting him back out of the room. “I’ll bear all that in mind.”</p><p>Alois clucked to himself, obviously not entirely satisfied, but thankfully not pressing the point. He stopped as he passed Leonie. “<em>I</em> think your hair looks lovely that way.” He gave her a courtly bow.</p><p>She turned crimson and mumbled “Thank you.”</p><p>Alois favored everyone with a paternal beam and walked off. Marianne gave Byleth and Leonie a weak smile and an apologetic shrug. Byleth nodded to her gravely. Leonie gave her an affectionate punch on the arm. Then the two retreated back into Byleth’s room, firmly shutting the door behind them.</p><p>Marianne headed back toward the garden. Ahead of her, Alois paused and waited for her to catch up. He shook his head. “Sometimes I despair of that boy. I’ll wager he never even noticed that she’s changed her hair.”</p><p>“…I’m almost positive that’s not the case.”</p><p>He looked skeptical. “Maybe. I had such hopes for those two. Oh, well.”</p><p>“Hopes?”</p><p>“Well, you know. Jeralt’s son and his apprentice. I thought they’d make a nice couple, but I doubt it will ever happen. Are you all right? Do you have a headache?”</p><p>“It’s fine, Alois. I’ll just go back to my gardening. Good morning.”</p><p>Alois beamed at her, bowed, and walked off, content at having solved the mystery of Leonie’s disappearance.</p>
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